


Board Games On A Rainy Day

by Makani



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Board Games, Bromance, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-19 13:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makani/pseuds/Makani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little piece of fluff to fill my prompt for the Johnlock Gift Exchange. I got duckiesinpuddles' prompt "Board Games On A Rainy Day" and since she was kind enough to allow the prompt to be filled with either a fic or a graphic, I decided to do both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Board Games On A Rainy Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [duckiesinpuddles.tumblr.com](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=duckiesinpuddles.tumblr.com).



> The Comic type thingy is at the bottom of this page, so if you only want to look at the artwork and don't care about my story (which you should because the comic doesn't really work without it) then just scroll down to see it ;)

John Watson was trudging through the rain, shoes squelching with every step. He was slightly annoyed at the world. They had just solved the case he had already dubbed “Murderous Pursuit” and of course there had been absolutely nothing edible in the house. He wondered if he should look into online grocery shopping. But then they’d have to be there for specific delivery times and with Sherlock’s cases you never knew when you’d be at home.

A bit of cold water drizzled into his jacket, running down his back and he shuddered. Much as he loved London, he wouldn’t mind slightly nicer weather now and again, thank you very much. And why was he always the one doing the shopping anyway? By now Sherlock was probably on the brink of getting bored again (it had been almost three hours since they solved the case after all). He might as well use his boundless energy on something constructive for a change. Oh well, who was he kidding. It was more than unlikely that Sherlock would ever volunteer to do the shopping, at least not without it being necessary for a case.

Fumbling for the key, John clumsily unlocked their door and walked up the stairs, annoyed about splattering water everywhere. Mrs. Hudson would have a field day when she saw the mess he’d made. There wasn’t anything for it though, the groceries had to be carried upstairs and the weather wasn’t exactly his fault.

He pushed open the flat door, bracing for Sherlock’s newest ‘experiment’. When he stepped their living room, however, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. He didn’t even notice the shopping bags falling from his hands in shock. It looked like the room had been transformed into an impromptu toy shop and in the middle of it all sat Sherlock, cross legged and obviously concentrating on a board game in front of him.

John couldn’t suppress an amused snort.

“Sherlock?” he began, unable to keep his eyes from the strange spectacle in front of him, “What the hell?”

But before he was able to continue, the laser focus of Sherlock Holmes’ gaze focused on him. Sherlock’s eyes glimmered with excitement akin to when he had a new case or an exceptionally juicy bit of experimentation.

“You’re home,” he remarked. “Excellent! Come and help me!”

Of course he’d be bossy, the arrogant git. And yet John still couldn’t wipe the silly grin from his face. There was the world’s only consulting detective, surrounded by toys and asking for John’s “help”.

With another quick glance at the board games in front of him, John couldn’t help but ask: “Help you with what exactly?”

It was, after all, best to be sure what you agreed to with Sherlock. Otherwise you might think you’re agreeing to a quick eye test and end up tied up with bugs crawling all over you. (To be fair to Sherlock, that had only happened once).

“Research, John!!!”

Sherlock sounded beyond excited. One would never think that the apparent reason of his enthusiasm was a large assortment of toys and games.

“The last case has made it obvious to me that games are often used as reference for murderers. They seem to get a certain thrill from taking something that is meant to amuse children and altering it to fit their murderous intent,” Sherlock explained, “In fact, even I like to say things like ‘The Game is On’ to signify a new case. Yet I have no actual knowledge of these games. Had you not recognised that the last case was based on Trivial Pursuit, it might have taken me a lot longer to solve it. Hence I’ve assorted several of the more popular games I could find and tried out several of them already. But I have to say, the results are very inconclusive when playing on my own.”

John dissolved in a fit of giggles which resulted in a pouting Sherlock that set John off even more. The world’s only consulting detective was seriously asking John to play board games with him. He wished he had a video camera to record this.

In his annoyance, Sherlock flopped onto the couch, obviously forgetting that he had placed a toy there. His wince was overshadowed by a loud beat and the instruction to “bop it”. By then, John was holding his stomach because it was starting to hurt with all the laughter.

“Bop It Extreme,” Sherlock commented wryly, “Absolutely useless. If a murderer ever manages to use something this useless as a pattern for murder, I shall commend him. I beat the high score on the first try. The things they give to children nowadays are absolutely ridiculous. No wonder they grow up to be complete idiots!”

He threw the offending toy against the wall where it gave a tinny noise and then quieted.

John had finally calmed down a bit again too.

“Alright then, which game do you want to play first?”

“Well, I have finished experimenting on this game here,” Sherlock said, clearing the Monopoly from the table with a sweeping gesture of his arm, “I think I understand the rules sufficiently. Why don’t you bring that one over and we can see if it yields interesting results.”

He was pointing at the box of “Cranium” and John picked it up dubiously. He remembered playing this game with his sister ages ago and somehow he couldn’t quite imagine Sherlock going for the charades.

They had to alter the rules a little of course, since they couldn’t really split into teams. Instead, they ended up just moving along the board and performing for each other. It didn’t really come as a surprise that Sherlock, with all his precision and analytical mind, was really good at all things to do with drawing. The few times he knew the songs in question he was also quite proficient at humdingers and hummed the melodies beautifully. The word worm questions proved no problems to Sherlock either.

John was better at the trivia questions obviously. But the thing they both pretty much failed at was cameo. Acting out things silently was obviously not something two grown men were supposed to be good at. It did make them both dissolve in fits of giggles though and John couldn’t help but marvel at the normally reserved detective obviously finding true enjoyment in something as childish as this board game.  
When they were just about to pack away Cranium, there was a hesitant knock at their door.

“Hullo,” came Mrs. Hudson’s voice, “Are you boys decent?”

John rolled his eyes. After all this time, Mrs. Hudson still thought they were a couple. He wondered how he was ever supposed to find a girlfriend when even their landlady couldn’t be persuaded that he wasn’t in a relationship with his flatmate.

“Mrs. Hudson!” Sherlock exclaimed, “Perfect timing, we need a third person.”

John arched an eyebrow. Sherlock hadn’t told him which game he intended to play next so he really had no idea what was waiting for him.

Their landlady shuffled in, bringing a plate of home baked shortbread with her.

“I made some lovely shortbread, I thought you might want to try some, just this once mind, I’m not your house keeper,” she said with a wink, “Now what do you need my help for?”

Sherlock grabbed something off the back of the couch with a flourish and John paled. He knew that game well enough and he had sworn quite some time ago to never ever play it again.

Oblivious, Sherlock put the colourful plastic mat on the floor and handed Mrs. Hudson the Spinner.

“You spin and then you tell us where to put our hands and feet,” he supplied helpfully to the slightly startled looking woman, “The first person to fall down loses.”

When he turned towards John, however, he was surprised to see that the good doctor had retreated to the kitchen. Sending Mrs. Hudson something that could possibly be seen as a mildly apologetic look (really it was more puzzlement than anything else), he followed his flat mate into the kitchen.

The shorter man was busying himself with getting two glasses out of a cupboard when he entered.

“John,” he asked, “What are you doing? Do you have objections to this particular game? I believe you told me it was rude to just walk out on people.”

Sherlock allowed himself a little pout.

In lieu of answering, John just grabbed a bottle of Scotch and began filling the glasses, holding one out towards the other man.

“Believe me, Sherlock, you do not want to play Twister while being sober. It’s not happening!”

The detective raised an eyebrow, wondering if his observations about the game would still be accurate enough if he allowed himself to get inebriated but then decided to humour John and sipped his Whiskey.

As for John, he didn’t just sip the beverage, he drank it in one go, refilling his glass right away.

“Right then,” he commented gruffly, “Let’s get this over with.”

It started innocent enough and Sherlock was just beginning to wonder what the fuss was about, when Mrs. Hudson announced the next move for their left hand and he realised there was no way he could reach one of the green fields without becoming completely entangled with John.

Feeling suddenly glad he had a bit of that Whiskey after all, he moved his hand and was surprised to find that John had started giggling.

“Your hair tickles,” John squeaked, trying to move his midsection as far away from Sherlock’s head without moving his limbs from their assigned spots.

Seeing the opportunity to win the game, Sherlock followed and shook his head gently, moving his hair over the bit of exposed skin on the side of John’s body.

The other man managed to shakily hold his position a few seconds longer, before he collapsed, giggling and wheezing something about fair play.

Mrs. Hudson was tutting and laughing at the same time, something that was quite an accomplishment.

Sherlock allowed himself a lopsided grin and a little chuckle. He had enjoyed this game and was already wondering how he could possibly repeat the experience at a later date. A part of him almost regretted tickling John, especially because the other man had now covered that delicious bit of exposed skin with his jumper once again.

Annoyed at himself, Sherlock shook himself out of these thoughts. There were still more games to be tested.

“Look at the time,” Mrs. Hudson’s voice announced, “I really should get back to my flat, it’s past time for my soothers.”

Absently hearing John wish Mrs. Hudson a good night, Sherlock was already looking through the games, finding the next one to try.

Meanwhile, John collapsed into his arm chair. So far this had been one of the best nights he had ever had with Sherlock. He couldn’t believe how much fun he was having. The one time they had tried playing Cluedo before it had gone horribly wrong and the game had ended up pinned to the wall. He supposed he shouldn’t have gotten such a sophisticated game. The simpler the game, the less Sherlock seemed to be able to find a fault. Mind you, he still complained about how ridiculous they were and what a waste of time, but John knew he was enjoying himself nevertheless. It was so rare to see genuine smiles or even laughter from Sherlock and tonight he had seen quite a lot of both.

“Ha! I found one,” came the detective’s triumphant voice from the other side of the couch table, “Nouk Two, I was wondering what that was.”

John raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of a game called Nouk 2. But Sherlock was already unpacking something from a purple box and fishing for the Instruction Manual.

While Sherlock was still leafing through the manual, John focused on the box in front of him...

“Erm, Sherlock,” he began, trying to get the other man’s detective.

But Sherlock was already otherwise preoccupied.

“What a sexist game is this? Female and Male cards? What is that supposed to mean, can two men not play this?”

“Sherlock!” John’s voice was quite a bit louder and he sounded so amused that Sherlock turned around and gave him an annoyed look.

“What?!”

John giggled again.

“The box. It doesn’t say Nouk Two. It says “Nookii” as in nookie. You do know what that is, right?”

The sight that greeted John really should have been captured on camera. Sherlock gaped at him for a second and then his ears started turning bright pink as he quickly closed the box and shoved it away as if stung.

“I think that’s enough for one night, John, don’t you?”

When John only chuckled again, he continued, still seeming rather flustered.

“Are you hungry? I’m hungry, we really should order some food. Chinese?”

Then their eyes met and Sherlock couldn’t resist joining into John’s breathless laughter.

It seemed game night was something they’d have to repeat. And maybe one day they would actually play a couples game. Never say never, right?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I hope duckiesinpuddles is happy with the fill of this prompt. She wanted fluff and I tried to give her as much of that as possible. Also this artwork took me forever, so while I'm sorry I didn't illustrate the whole story, it would have just taken too much time which I should really be devoting to Uni work ;)
> 
> Comments are loved and cherished forever. If you enjoy the story please just drop me a quick line ;)


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